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Uterine Replicators
Uterine replicators are a fairly old technology, originally created to allow easy colonization of distant worlds prior to the invention of faster-than-light travel; it was far more cost effective for the majority of colonists to be shipped as frozen embryos and later gestated in vitro on site. The technology was perhaps more popular with the general population than originally intended. Shortly after the invention of the artificial wombs and their clinical trials, the vast majority of female humans on Earth and nearby colonies were choosing to gestate their offspring artificially. This soon became considered a standard health practice, ideal to avoid the hazards and body changes caused by pregnancy; only extremely conservative social groups eschewed this practice. The popular view of traditional biological gestation and birth quickly shifted to regarding the practice as anywhere from quaint and old-fashioned to borderline abusive. This technology allowed for more genetic interventions, dependent upon local laws. * Advanced genetic screening/cleaning to remove genetic illnesses and defects. * Genetic manipulation of physical features (eg: "custom babies"), with some largely unsuccessful attempts made in regards to determination of personality, intellect, and other ability aptitudes. * Combining genetic material of two partners of the same biological sex, or multiple partners. * Cloning (note: This creates only a biological copy of the progenitor; personality, memory, knowledge, etc are acquired after birth and cannot be replicated in vitro) Uterine Replicators in Proles In Proles, local laws allow for all of the above genetic interventions. So-called "natural" pregnancy and birth is extremely rare, practiced by less than one percent of the population at any given time. Generally those who eschew use of replicators are either the extremely poor or members of extremely conservative religious groups. Businesses providing replicator gestation are many and varied, ranging with contracts that allow lease of equipment for home gestation, on-site storage in private rooms so expectant parents can visit and speak to their fetus, or generic in-house storage in a service bank with minimum legally required in vitro interactions provided by staff. If credit balances are not paid on time, babies are remitted to orphanages run by the charity arm of Bifrons Inc, to be adopted out to worthy parents or raised by loving employees of the company. While there are hundreds of replicator clinics of varying sizes scattered throughout the city, by law all unused genetic material is remitted to the Central Gene Bank, under the administration of the medical center. In general, all material is considered open for study, but cannot be legally used for creation of children or gene sequences without prior permission. On rare occasions, citizens have sued for access to genetic material, both successfully (see: Barnes vs. Sanctum Militia) and unsuccessfully (see: Gently, Meritage, and Solsys et al vs. Cameron "Divalicious" Delacroix). "Line Juice" In the early days of The Contagion, a fertility specialist named Dr. Irwin McCaffrey came to the early conclusion that the disease would reduce the population severely. With the doctors in his gestational firm, he began a personal crusade to acquire as much genetic material as possible in the form of sperm and ova, to be stored in a private fertility bank. His belief was that even if the population of the planet was destroyed by plague, their legacy should live on. The moniker "Line Juice" was coined during the The Battle of the Line, when the increasingly desperate team of doctors made forays to the Line itself, trying to acquire as much material as possible from the soldiers stationed there. This was likely a direct reaction to the rapidly climbing casualty rate for those who were at the time being touted as the best and brightest of the city. Most acquisitions were made via micro-needle from consenting (or at least not unwilling) donors, often in exchange for alcohol rations or otherwise controlled drugs. Rumor has it that doctors also acquired material in medical wards from unconscious or incompetent patients, or even raided freshly-deceased corpses for their genetic material, even sampling from the infected on the chance the disease had not progressed to the gonads yet. What was originally perhaps an altruistic (if extremely ghoulish) practice was later thrown into a much more negative light after the closure of the dome as Dr. McCaffrey and his associates attempted to sell the genetic material of the deceased back to their families at exorbitant rates. Shortly thereafter, McCaffrey's gene banks were confiscated by Callsign Whiskey and incorporated into the Central Gene Bank, and McCaffrey himself was imprisoned for over a thousand counts of medical fraud. It should be noted that most material from the Line exists under incomplete profiles, often only sex, approximate age, and army serial number. A part-time research assistant is working to rectify this situation, but with the disappearance of many hard copy records from the Proles Army and general confusion surrounding the Line and construction of the Dome, progress has been slow.